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From Communist Party of Israel On the Israeli elections Two days after the general election on Tuesday (February 10), it was clear that even after all of the soldiers’ votes had been counted today evening (Thursday, February 12) the mandate distribution in the Knesset (the Israeli parliament) was not altered. Following the final votes’ count,…

From the Israeli leading newspaper "Haaretz" editorial:
No reason to vote Meretz

"The New Movement-Meretz was established in the period leading up to the elections to the 18th Knesset, with the ambition of filling the vacuum created in Israeli politics in the center and left of center.

"Assuming the polls are accurate – and they have been quite consistent – Israeli voters are poised to elect a rightwing government in next week’s elections. But if bloggers were representative of the mainstream, Israel’s next government would probably be a Jewish-Arab coalition of socialists, social democrats and environmentalists.

Hadash and the Communist Party launches new election campaign focused on fight fascism and racism

Hadash (the Democratic Front for Peace and Equality – Communist Party of Israel) launched its new election campaign today (Monday, January 26, 2009) ahead of the nearing general elections, and has chosen to focus on fight against fascism and racism.

700 have been detained in public demonstrations held in Israel against war crimes in the Gaza Strip

Over 700 citizens and residents of Israel, mostly Arab-Palestinian, have been detained since Israel began its military attacks on the Gaza Strip on 27 December 2008. Detentions were made in the wake of public demonstrations, held primarily in northern Israel, Tel-Aviv-Jaffa and also in the southern city of Bee-Sheva; against Israel’s war crimes in the Gaza Strip.

In addition to the detention of demonstrators, Israel conducted interrogations and preventative detentions of Palestinian leaders in Israel. The Chairperson of the National Democratic Assembly (Balad), Awad Abd al-Fatah, spent a night in detention and was subsequently released without charges. The Secretary of the Democratic Front for Peace and Equality (Hadash), Ayman Odeh, was interrogated by the GSS (Shin-Bet), as were leaders of the Abna al-Balad, Muhammad Canaane and Raja Aghbariya.

The violation of the right to freedom of expression of citizens and residents in Israel is part of two separate but interrelated campaigns being waged by the Israeli government: the (further) marginalization and de-legitimization of Arab-Palestinians national minority in Israel, and the concealment of protest within Israel against the attacks on Gaza.

Upon the launching of the attack on Gaza, Ehud Barak struck the pose of Julius Caesar, who announced with his crossing of the Rubicon that “the die is cast”, and declared “combat has begun”. The question begged is, which combat exactly? Two sides are needed in order for there to be a war, as we all know; but here in Gaza, are there two sides to the bombing of Gaza from the air? On one side is there not an air force equipped with the best aircraft provided by its “friend”, the USA, while on the other side are completely defenceless people facing heavy bombardment that rains down on them from the heavens? Is there such a thing as a war in which only one side is fighting? Therefore the combat that Israeli Defence Minister Barak announced is not a war but a hunt! A hunt for humans who lack the minimal means to resist and who are slaughtered from the air. A hunt for sitting ducks. I recall the romantic films that we used to watch back in the day, in which two adversaries would fight with swords. When to one of them, even the evil one, lost his sword, his adversary would return his sword to him so as to avoid killing a defenceless man. That’s how it was in the movies. In the reality of today, one side stands without a sword in the face of an enemy armed from head to toe and they call it “war”. The war in Gaza in our day looks a lot more like a massacre.

The first air attack began on 27 December. It lasted 4 minutes over the course of which 200 people were killed. The second wave of attacks came a few minutes later. Until the ground invasion about 400 Palestinians were killed and 4 Israelis were killed by qassam missiles. The sum total so far indicates more than 500 killed Palestinians as against 5 Israelis killed. The number of Palestinian wounded is about 2,500, whereas on the Israeli side the number of wounded is estimated to be 50. These numbers tell the story of the unequal “Gaza war”.

Communist Party of Israel leading members met in Ramallah with representatives of left-wing Palestinian factions

Communist Party of Israel leading members met in Ramallah with representatives of left-wing Palestinian factions, including the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and the Palestinian People’s Party. Militants from the four factions met Thursday (December 25, 2008) in Ramallah to coordinate future steps and to consider ways to strengthen the cooperation between them. The Communist Party of Israel was represented in the meeting by the secretary-general, Mohammed Nafa’h; and the chairman of Hadash, (The Democratic Peace and Equality Front), M.K. Mohammed Barakeh. This is the first time a meeting has been held in which representatives from all four factions were in attendance. "The Palestinian arena is today in desperate need of a progressive, leftist dialogue of unity," Barakeh said.

The Communist Party of Israel and Hadash (the Democratic Front for Peace and Equality) condemns today’s deadly attack by the Israeli Air Force on the Gaza Strip, which resulted in the killing of over 150 Palestinians. The CPI calls on Communist and Workers parties and social movements throughout the world to mobilize against these Israeli war crimes and demands that the international community implement sanctions against Israel and indict Tzipi Livni, Ehud Barak and other Israeli political and military leadership for these blatant war crimes, committed as part of Israel’s election process.

From Communist Party of Israel

On Racism and Co-existence in Acre

By Reem Hazan *

The recent incidents in Acre appeared to be spontaneous acts of racism and a threat to the "co-existence" between Arabs and Jews in the city. But that is only if we take seriously the idealist notion of "co-existence" that some said prevailed in Acre. If not, we are left with a reality where two peoples live in the same jurisdiction, but where the minority, the Arabs, are discriminated against in all areas – their rights, services, education and development.

The majority Jewish population also suffers poverty and unemployment but this majority sees the conflict against the backdrop of religion and takes it anger out on the Arab community rather than the state. It does not see the problem as a matter of methodical oppression.